Season pass-holders sue Cedar Point’s owner over reimbursements for shortened season

From Cleveland.com

A season pass-holder Friday sued Cedar Fair, the owner of Cedar Point and a dozen other major theme parks, in a lawsuit that alleges the company failed to offer reimbursements for a season hindered by the pandemic.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Toledo, requests a class-action status to include residents who bought passes from all of the parks the Sandusky-based corporation owns, including Cedar Point.

Full article @ cleveland.com

Interesting, and not unexpected. I think the real surprise is that it took this long.

That seems rather obnoxious to me at this point. They extended all passes into 2021 at no cost. But I guess I can see an argument that nothing is guaranteed in 2021 or something.

I will be completely honest and say I hope Cedar Fair wins or the case is thrown out for some reason. They have worked hard through this summer to work with what they had and I would hate to something like this wipe out their summer.

Quick, someone call those folks a whambulance.

The terms pf agreement for pass holders precludes refunds for all chains. "Pass is the property of Cedar Fair L.P. and is non-transferable, non-refundable, non-exchangeable and not valid for cash". All the theme park chains are extending or giving pass holders extensions, upgrades and/or in park credits for merchandise, etc... b/c it's good long term business, not b/c they really legally have to. Of course not doing things for patrons would cause them to lose many. By the letter of the law of the agreements they don't have to have to extend or give perks for short seasons, etc... This lawsuit is just some person trying to be a pain in the butt making it a class action. This case will be thrown out of court quickly not only b/c of the terms and the fact the ability to open was determined by the government regulations not parks deciding to not open & trying pocket money & denying the product purposefully.

I forgot that fine print, and I'm a passholder with no intentions of ending that anytime soon.

Definitely rooting for Cedar Fair for this one.

You know we never did get Just Coasting's real name...

Guess the "Made Whole" dept. didn't quite work out for them.

CED23 said:

...and is non-transferable, non-refundable, non-exchangeable and not valid for cash".

That language certainly eliminates an individual from initiating a refund request, but I am not sure if that language applies to the park initiating/offering a refund for unforeseen circumstances. I would imagine that the Disney passes have very similar fine print and I am aware at least one family has gotten a refund for this year's passes.

For fun and giggles, suppose I bought a pass for this year because I was on a one year assignment for work in the area. Now Covid strikes and I have a pre-existing condition that makes me getting Covid a potentially deathly situation. As such I choose not to go to the park. Since my work assignment ends this year and I move back home where there is no Cedar Fair park reasonably close to me why shouldn't I expect to be able to get a refund rather than a year's extension on a pass that I will not be able to use next year?

Not saying that is what is behind the lawsuit, but it is surely a plausible situation for which I would expect the park to make that person whole.

I hadn't thought of that situation. Out of curiosity did you attempt to reach directly out to the park and present your situation? I would be surprised if they weren't doing it on a case by case basis and just making general statements for the crowds?

That was just a made up scenario. And if I was in that predicament I would surely call the park.

Yeah you put it right there too. Leave it to me to not read something that obvious.

I do hope the judge leans toward the law and not toward compassion. It could set the industry back years to finally re-invest in the park and the patrons so that some "karens" can get a refund that is legally not owed to them and due to the restrictions set forth by the government entities, it should be the governments that are sued, not the businesses that were required to compromise their business models to reduce risk to the clients which they serve. Sue the Virus! Sue the Virus! In other words, no one but the media should care about this.

Shades said:

CED23 said:

...and is non-transferable, non-refundable, non-exchangeable and not valid for cash".

That language certainly eliminates an individual from initiating a refund request, but I am not sure if that language applies to the park initiating/offering a refund for unforeseen circumstances. I would imagine that the Disney passes have very similar fine print and I am aware at least one family has gotten a refund for this year's passes.

For fun and giggles, suppose I bought a pass for this year because I was on a one year assignment for work in the area. Now Covid strikes and I have a pre-existing condition that makes me getting Covid a potentially deathly situation. As such I choose not to go to the park. Since my work assignment ends this year and I move back home where there is no Cedar Fair park reasonably close to me why shouldn't I expect to be able to get a refund rather than a year's extension on a pass that I will not be able to use next year?

Not saying that is what is behind the lawsuit, but it is surely a plausible situation for which I would expect the park to make that person whole.

CF has given refunds based on specific scenarios, I know somebody that got one b/c they will not be in the country next year. There is no need for a class action b/c CF has made accommodations for certain scenarios. The other thing is the suit is about a shortened season, there is no legal remedy on what a "season entails". CF is being very generous extending all passes & add ons for 2021. They could have been much "tighter" financially and offered a prorated discount relative to open days in 2020.

This article make the person sounds like a new Gold Pass person looking to get everything for free after getting Fall 2019 free, partial season 2020 and now wants their $99 back after using the product. Hopefully these low end riff raff mostly go away as CP raised Gold Passes to $119 in 2021 and hopefully they keep raising it to what the old regular passes were just under $140.

I think some of you need to check your fanboyism here. It is not entirely unreasonable to want money back for something that had an implied contract, specifically a summer of admission, in 2020, that it could not deliver. Doesn't matter if it was out of their control, but with rampant unemployment and uncertainty, I don't think it's unreasonable that a consumer would want their money back and then choose if it was appropriate to buy a pass next year.

My challenge to them if that's the case is have they attempted to reach out to their park and see about a refund before trying to sue. If they have that's one thing, but if they haven't made any attempt to reach out to the park and are just now suing it's suspicious. If Cedar Fair presents records that those suing have used the passes and still want their money back, throw them out.

Also didn't see a name in the article before, I'm very curious why they named Cedar Point near the top of their suit when they are from the Washington area and got a pass for Knott's.

I agree with Jeff. While I do think the lawsuit is ridiculous (perhaps as Twisted suggests above a call may have worked), I think the park should've offered a refund or extension. I'm not sure about other operators but I know that's how Disney handled it. I would've kept the extension (and did for CF and Disney) but many likely would've opted for a refund and certainly should've been given a choice.

I have no problem with wanting a refund. My only issue is the lawyer seeking class-action status. But that's probably more related to my overall disdain with class-action lawsuits. The person bringing the suit has a pass for Knott's, which hasn't opened. Different parks have had different numbers of operating days. He said in the article that millions have season passes. But how many have used it this year at a park that was able to open? How many are satisfied with getting the 2021 season as compensation? There are so many variables. Not sure why the lawyer feels the need to go class-action. Well, I know why. The typical class action result - millions for a law firm and the victims get a check for $2.15 and a free year of credit monitoring. 😄

TwistedCircuits said:

I'm very curious why they named Cedar Point near the top of their suit when they are from the Washington area and got a pass for Knott's.

Coaster enthusiast.

California is basically your only choice if you live in Washington, unless you think Wild Waves is enough.

I thought he meant D.C since he said Washington area. I guess Knott's could work if we are talking Washington state but even then I would think Great America would be your park of choice for a pass.